Something quietly remarkable happened recently – I was honored to be a guest on the Homeschool Minnesota Podcast with host Dayle Annand. And I don’t use the word “remarkable” lightly.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I’m a words person. English major. Huge book nerd. The kind of person who has strong feelings about sentence rhythm and will reorganize her bookshelves by vibe or subject, not just by genre or author.
So getting to sit down and talk about literature – specifically classical literature for high schoolers, and why it matters, and how we can make it accessible to every homeschool family – felt a little like being handed a microphone at a concert and discovering the song is one you’ve known by heart for years.
It was a good conversation. I absolutely loved meeting Dayle and finding another fellow Charlotte Mason person! Come listen.
Host Dayle Annand brings on guests to talk about the real, practical, and beautiful parts of homeschool life, and she made me feel completely at home. (Which, given that she’s in Minnesota and I am very much not a cold-weather person, is saying something.)
What We Talked About: Journey Through the Classics
The episode is titled “Journey Through the Classics FREE High School Literature Program” – and yes, free is doing a lot of work in that title, in the best possible way. I’m so grateful that Dayle is helping me spread the word!
We talked about my high school literature curriculum, Journey Through the Classics, which is completely free and fully self-contained. No expensive purchases required. No curriculum company subscription. No scrambling to piece together a reading list and somehow also teach critical thinking and essay writing and the kind of deep literary engagement that actually stays with a person through adulthood.
Just good books. Great conversations. And a framework that holds it all together.
Why Classical Literature Still Matters
Here’s what I genuinely believe, and what I talked about on the podcast: the classics are not dusty relics on a shelf that we assign because someone told us to.
They are stories that have survived centuries because they are true in the way that only the best stories are true – true about what it means to be human, to make choices, to live with consequences, to reach for something beyond yourself.
When your teenager reads Homer or Shakespeare or Austen or Helprin, they’re not just checking a box. They’re joining a conversation that has been happening across generations, across cultures, across time. That’s not nothing. That’s actually everything.
Charlotte Mason understood this. She called it “the living book” philosophy – the idea that a child’s mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled (she borrowed that from Plutarch, so good company). Classical literature, taught well, does exactly that.
Why Free Matters
I also want to talk about the free part for a second, because it matters to me.
Homeschooling can be expensive!
Let’s just say that out loud.
Quality curriculum can run hundreds of dollars per subject per year, and for a high school student who needs multiple subjects, that adds up faster than you can say “co-op Tuesday.” I have always believed that an excellent education should not be gated behind a price tag – and classical literature, of all things, should be the most accessible subject of all. These books are public domain. The ideas belong to everyone.
https://homeschoolwithjoy.kit.com/journeyingthroughtheclassicsSo I built Journey Through the Classics to be genuinely free. Not a free trial. Not a free sample with a premium upgrade. Not free, but you have to give me your credit card. Totally Free.
What’s In the Curriculum
We went into detail on the podcast, so I’ll let you listen for the full picture – but in broad strokes, Journey Through the Classics is:
A complete, self-contained high school literature program. It includes reading lists organized around classic texts, discussion questions, writing prompts, and the kind of literary analysis framework that teaches teens how to think about what they’re reading, not just what happened in the plot.
It’s rooted in Charlotte Mason’s philosophy – which means narration, living books, attention to beautiful language, art integration, love of nature, and the conviction that a student who genuinely loves literature is worth infinitely more than one who can pass a standardized test.
But, of course, it is rigorous enough that your student could!
It works for all kinds of learners – the bookworm who inhales novels, the reluctant reader who needs a reason to care, the analytical kid who wants to argue about themes at the dinner table. (If that last one is your kid: Congratulations! And also I’m sorry, those dinners are long. I know because it was me, lol. Sorry, Mom!)
A Little Behind-the-Scenes Honesty
I’ll be real with you: being a podcast guest is a little spine tingling in a way. I am much more comfortable with words on a page than words coming out of my face in real time. My inner editor would like to go back and revise approximately three sentences. But Dayle is a genuinely warm and skilled host, and the conversation flowed in a way that felt natural and honest – which is all I ever really want.
I talked about my background. My editing and professional literature world experience. Why I care so much about literature and language and the way stories shape us. Why I think homeschool families are, quietly, doing some of the most important educational work happening right now. Why I believe your high schooler can love the classics – and why that’s worth pursuing even when it’s hard.
I hope it encourages you. That was the whole point.
Go Listen – And Share It
The episode is about 25 minutes long – the perfect length for a car ride, a walk, or that sacred window of time when everyone is occupied and you get to drink your coffee while it’s still hot. (Almond milk latte, obviously. I’m nothing if not consistent.)
You can find it on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. And if it resonates with you, share it with a homeschool friend – especially one who is staring down high school and wondering how on earth to tackle literature without spending a fortune or losing her mind!
There’s a moment when you hand a homeschool parent something free – something genuinely, completely, no-strings-attached free – and you can almost see their internal monologue playing out in real time.
What’s the catch? Is it actually good? Do I have to enter my credit card? Do I have to remember to cancel a free trial that isn’t really free? Is this one of those “free” things that’s really just a sales funnel dressed up in a PDF?
I get it. I’ve been that parent. So let me just show you.
Four years of study. 34 units. 700+ pages. It is totally free after subscribing to Homeschool with Joy (no credit card required!) and in the video below, I’m walking you through one complete unit from start to finish – the Anne of Green Gables unit – so you can see exactly how it works before you download the whole thing.
Anne felt like the right one to show you. She’s curious and bookish and a little bit extra, which honestly describes most of us who end up homeschooling. And her unit is a good representative sample of what every unit in the curriculum looks like – the structure, the depth, the flexibility, all of it.
But if you’d rather read than watch (hello, fellow bookworms), here’s a deep dive into exactly what you’re downloading.
It’s Built Around Living Books – Not Worksheets
Charlotte Mason had this radical idea that children deserve to encounter ideas in their full, living form – not pre-digested, not simplified, not stripped of beauty and complexity to fit a standardized test. She called them living books, and she was right. A child who reads The Secret Garden and discusses its layers of growth and grace will understand human nature better than a child who fills in a packet about symbolism.
Every unit in Journeying Through the Classics is built around that philosophy. The comprehension questions aren’t trivia that won’t matter next week. The discussion prompts aren’t gotcha questions with one right answer. The writing assignments ask students to think, form opinions, and defend them – in their own voice.
No busywork. No boring fill-in-the-blanks. Just good books and real thinking.
What’s Actually Inside Each Unit
Each unit is self-contained, which means you can use them in any order, skip what doesn’t resonate, and customize freely without breaking anything.
Here’s what every unit includes:
The Teacher’s Guide walks you through the whole unit – context for the work, discussion guidance, pacing suggestions, and answer keys. There’s a complete Scope and Sequence, too! You don’t have to be a literature scholar. I’ve done the literary heavy lifting (and actually am a literature scholar!) so you can focus on the conversation.
The Book List connects each unit to free online resources. Every book in the curriculum is available online for free or at your local library. Zero required purchases. (Yes, really.) If you want to purchase the book, I also link directly to the best, unabridged version.
Student Progress Sheets give your student a framework for tracking their own work – a Charlotte Mason-aligned approach to accountability that doesn’t feel like a permission slip. Each one has beautiful matching art!
The Literature Units themselves include narration prompts, discussion questions, vocabulary lists, spelling words, and writing instruction in multiple types of essays – MLA citation, analytical essay structure, grammar in context. The kind of writing skills that actually prepare students for college without making them dread the page and allow for creativity.
Art Study pages are one of my favorite parts. Charlotte Mason incorporated picture study as a regular, unhurried practice – and each unit includes art integration that connects visual art to the literature. It adds a layer of beauty to the work that I think feeds something in students that pure academics can’t.
The Notebook Pages: More Than Just Pretty
Speaking of art – I want to talk about the cover and divider pages for a minute, because these matter more than they might seem.
When you open a curriculum binder and the first thing you see is a beautiful, thoughtfully designed page, something shifts. It signals to your student (and to you): this work is worth doing beautifully. The visual organization of the curriculum – the Teacher’s Guide dividers, the Book List covers, the Student Progress section headers, the unit title pages – all of it is designed to feel like something worth caring for.
Beauty is not a distraction from education. It is part of it.
How Flexible Is It, Really?
Very. I mean it.
You can use units in any order. You can do one unit per semester or one per month. You can assign the whole unit to one student or split pieces across multiple kids at different levels. You can use the discussion questions for Socratic seminar or one-on-one conversation over tea. You can skip the art study if you’re in a season where that doesn’t fit. You can do two years of American Literature or spend a year entirely in world classics.
The curriculum bends. That’s by design.
Charlotte Mason herself said the goal was to give children the opportunity to form a relationship with great ideas – not to march them through a predetermined sequence and call it done. Journeying Through the Classics takes that seriously.
Who It’s For
Honestly? Any homeschool family with a high schooler (or extra bookish middle schooler) who reads. You don’t have to be a Charlotte Mason purist. You don’t have to use it as your only curriculum – or you can. You don’t have to follow it in order or complete every unit. Or you totally can!
It works beautifully as a full four-year literature spine. It also works as a supplement alongside something else. It’s been used by families doing everything from classical to eclectic to unschooling-adjacent.
What it requires: a student who can read, a parent willing to have real conversations, and a love of books. If you have those three things, you’re ready.
Download It Free
After subscribing to Homeschool with Joy, you’ll receive the full curriculum download – all 700+ pages, yours to keep. No credit card. No upgrade prompt. No catch.
If you have questions, drop them in the comments below. I read every one.
Every spring, there’s a moment in the checkout line – usually sometime in late February, when the stores have already been wallpapered in pastel for weeks – where I stare at a bag of plastic Easter grass and feel a small, quiet rebellion stirring. SpongeBob gummies made of fake ingredients with a bunny ears hat. Peeps made of who-knows-what.
This is not the Easter I have ever wanted to give my children.
I want the Easter where my kids wake up to baskets that make them feel known and loved, while also not having fake not-real-food ingredients created in a Mad Scientist’s Lab. Where the Resurrection and the over-arching story of beauty and growth and spring is not competing with seventeen pounds of sugar. Where the things I tucked in with care are still being used in June.
That’s a Charlotte Mason Easter basket. And it is absolutely worth thinking about.
Why This Matters (More Than You Think)
Here’s the thing about Easter baskets – they’re actually a chance to put something living into your child’s hands on the morning that is about living.
Charlotte Mason believed that children were born persons, fully capable of encountering great ideas and beautiful things. She wrote that the mind “lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body.” What we choose to give our children – literally, physically put in their hands – is a kind of curriculum. A basket stuffed with throw away plastic and sugar says one thing. A basket with a field guide and a new nature journal says something else entirely. It invites kids to adventures!
Plutarch said it best (and homeschoolers have been quoting this one for centuries, often by accident attributing it to Yeats – but Plutarch said it first – which was news to me!)… “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
Easter morning, of all mornings, is exactly the right time to hand a child something that kindles something.
These aren’t just things in a basket. They’re invitations!
Living Books and Read-Alouds
Charlotte Mason would never separate a season from its stories. The power of story is something that animates me 100% of the time. Easter is no exception.
For the youngest ones:Beatrix Potter’s tales are perennially perfect for spring – Peter Rabbit belongs in a basket like daffodils belong in a vase. A beautiful treasury edition is the kind of thing that survives years of reading and still looks like a gift. I have my grandmother’s Beatrix Potter set! It is highly treasured.
For the middle grades:The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is the quintessential spring read-aloud. A neglected garden, a grieving house, and the slow miracle of new life – it is practically an extended meditation on resurrection, except it was written before anyone decided literature needed to be obvious about these things. A beautiful illustrated edition tucked into a basket is the kind of gift that becomes a childhood memory.
For poetry and folklore lovers:The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker is gorgeous – illustrated verses for every flower of the season, the kind of book Charlotte Mason would have handed her students without needing to explain why.
photo by Amazon reviewer, the hocketts photo by Amazon reviewer, the hocketts
“Children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them.” ~Charlotte Mason
Nature Study Supplies
Spring is when the whole world is cooperating with your nature study goals. Take advantage of it.
A hand lens or magnifying glass (we love this Melissa and Doug one!) might be the single best tool for any age. It is simple, it works, and it turns every backyard into a discovery. Pair it with a fresh nature journal – blank pages, not lined, because a nature journal is not a worksheet – and you have given a child everything they need for a season of noticing.
A butterfly net and bug observation container are perfect for the backyard naturalist. Catch, observe, release. This is Charlotte Mason nature study in its most essential form.
For the budding birder, a window bird feeder is the gift that keeps teaching. Add a field guide to backyard birds for your region and you have a complete tiny ornithology kit that will entertain and instruct for months.
And seed packets. A few carefully chosen flower or herb seeds, a small terracotta pot, a bit of soil. Tending a plant from seed through the summer is one of the most natural lessons in patience, stewardship, and resurrection-shaped hope that I know of.
Art and Handicraft Supplies
Handicrafts were central to Charlotte Mason’s vision of whole education – forming the hands alongside the heart and mind.
Beeswax crayons (look for Stockmar brand, which is widely beloved in CM circles) are rich and creamy and come in lovely tins that feel like a gift before you even open them. Block crayons for young children, sticks for older ones. They are nothing like the waxy, pale versions you grew up with.
Watercolor paints – a small, quality set – open up nature journaling in a completely new way. Spring flowers, bird sketches, the first green things pushing up in the garden: all of this becomes art with a good brush and transparent color.
For teens, a beginner embroidery or needle felting kit makes a lovely and increasingly rare gift. This is the kind of slow, beautiful work that settles a teenager. (Trust the process on this one. My own teenager, who is interested in art and digital design, has also discovered the deep satisfaction of making something with her hands.)
I’ve always been partial to anything Klutz brand and they have a kit called the Super Cute Embroidery Kit, which is aptly named!
Faith-Based Resources
A Charlotte Mason Easter basket, for the Christian family, has Christ at its center – not as an afterthought, but as the whole point.
Resurrection Eggs are a classic for good reason – twelve eggs, each containing a small symbol from the Easter story with accompanying Scripture. This places the Gospel narrative directly in small hands, in a form that is tactile and memorable. Miss Mason believed children should always go to primary sources. This is the primary source. I found out about this tradition when my kids were older and we never did it ourselves, but have had friends that did.
For a more liturgical walk through the week, look for resources that move through Holy Week day by day. The rhythm of Palm Sunday through Easter morning teaches something that no single lesson can.
And consider a beautifully illustrated children’s Bible. The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones has become beloved in CM homes for its literary quality and its thread-of-redemption framing – the sense that every story is really one story, and it’s the best one. C.S. Lewis would have approved! There is a new gift edition, which I may need to get for our home, even though we have a couple of the “regular” version already.
For Older Kids and Teens (Because Wonder Has No Age Limit)
Here’s where I push back a little on the idea that teenagers have aged out of a meaningful Easter basket. They haven’t! They may have aged out of finding plastic eggs in the yard, but they have not aged out of getting a basket of surprises that make them feel unique and loved.
For the teen who loves to read: a beautiful edition of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is the Easter basket book I’d give to any thoughtful 16-year-old. It is quietly one of the most profound explorations of faith, doubt, and transformation ever written. Not preachy. Just devastating and life-changing in the best possible way. It is great for thoughtful kids wanting to explore and get their own footing in Christian thought, not just plod in your footsteps without thinking. The cover even looks Easter-y in the bright robin’s egg blue!
For the teen naturalist: a quality sketchbook and a set of fine-liner pens for scientific illustration, paired with a field guide specific to their current obsession (insects, fungi, birds, native plants – pick your kid). Teens who have been nature journaling since childhood often hit a point where they want more precision. Give them the tools.
For the creative teen: a good set of watercolor brush pens or a beginner calligraphy kit are both wonderful. Beautiful, portable, and genuinely skill-building.
For the teen who is asking hard questions about faith (and good for them!! that means growth!): The Case for Easter by Lee Strobel is short, accessible, and takes the historical evidence seriously.
Or for the literary-minded teenager, Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton – because nothing kindles a thinking faith like Chesterton.
A Word About Candy (Yes, There Can Be Candy)
I’m not anti-candy. I want to be clear about that. But I am very much against what’s in most of the candy filling the Easter baskets at every big box store right now – and it’s worth talking about for a minute.
Synthetic food dyes – the ones that make candy aggressively neon and jelly beans look like a fever dream – are petroleum-derived chemicals that the research is increasingly not being kind to. A comprehensive review of 27 clinical trials found that 64% showed associations between synthetic dye exposure and behavioral changes in children, with 52% reaching statistical significance. We’re talking about hyperactivity, yes – but also attention, impulse control, and mood. Research points to mechanisms involving disruption of dopamine and serotonin metabolism, leading to neuroinflammation and impaired impulse control. The FDA’s safety thresholds for these dyes, by the way, are based on studies from the 1980s that weren’t designed to measure behavioral effects at all. So there’s that.
This isn’t a fringe concern anymore. It’s peer-reviewed and piling up.
The good news: you don’t have to choose between Easter candy and a chemistry experiment. Natural Candy Store (naturalcandystore.com) is my go-to for dye-free, naturally colored treats that are genuinely festive and actually taste good.
They carry gummies, jelly beans, chocolate eggs, and seasonal options made without artificial colors, flavors, or corn syrup. A small bag of their naturally-dyed jelly beans tucked into a wicker basket is still joyful. It just doesn’t come with a behavioral side effect.
They also have lots of sprinkles!! You can never have too many sprinkles!
I have been a loyal customer of theirs for over a decade and they have saved many a birthday party! They have super kind customer service.
Your kids can have candy on Easter morning. It can just be candy that isn’t working against the brain you’re so carefully educating the rest of the year.
Building Your Perfect Charlotte Mason Easter Basket
You don’t need to do everything on this list. That’s not the point.
The point is intention – choosing things that open rather than close, that invite rather than entertain.
I hope I’ve sparked a few ideas!
A few practical notes:
On the basket itself: Real wicker. For the grass, skip the plastic entirely – paper Easter grass has a lovely crinkled texture that photographs beautifully, and woven or raffia-style filler is even better and feels genuinely old-world. A cutting of clover or a handful of whatever is blooming in your yard right now tucked in at the edge makes it look like spring arranged the whole thing. Easter is April 5 this year, which means spring is genuinely here in most of the country – use it.
For very young children (under 5): One or two books, a set of beeswax crayons, seed packets, and maybe a small stuffed bird or bunny. Simple. Sensory. Perfect.
For elementary ages (6-12): A nature journal, a hand lens, one living book at their level, and a small art supply. Add Resurrection Eggs or another faith-based resource if you don’t already have them.
For teens: One book that will challenge them, one art or craft supply that builds a real skill, and something that says I see who you are becoming and I support you. That last one doesn’t have to cost anything.
For “just because” baskets: Everything here works outside of Easter too – a spring birthday, a homeschool encouragement gift, a “we survived the first semester” celebration. Living books and nature tools are always appropriate.
The Deeper Thing
I’ve been thinking about why this matters so much to me – the intentional basket, the meaningful gift, the thing that will still be on the shelf in July.
It’s because Easter is the story about how death didn’t win. How the ending everyone expected wasn’t the actual ending. How the garden on Sunday morning held an astonishment that changed everything.
And I want my children – on that morning, with those baskets – to hold something that participates in that. Something that says: the world is full of things worth noticing, worth making, worth reading, worth believing.
Not a bag of plastic grass and stale jelly beans.
Something alive.
“The question is not – how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education – but how much does he care?” ~Charlotte Mason
What does your family’s Easter morning look like? Do you do baskets? I’d genuinely love to know what living books or nature tools have made it into your family’s Easter traditions. Tell me in the comments.
And if this post was helpful – save it for later and share it with a fellow homeschool mama. Easter is April 5 this year. We have just enough time.
P.S. A quick note: this post includes Easter eggs. If you’re in the “eggs are pagan” camp, I respect your convictions, and this post is probably not for you – and that’s okay.
Early Mesopotamian Christians dyed eggs red to represent Christ’s blood. Saint Augustine wrote about the resurrection using the image of a chick bursting from an egg. There’s a beautiful Eastern tradition that Mary Magdalene herself brought eggs to the tomb on that first Easter morning. The egg has been part of the Christian Easter story for two thousand years – long before any of us were having this argument on the internet.
I’m not here to fight about it. I’m here to build a great basket. If you don’t do that, peace out. If you do, peace out. Onward.
